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From the best information we can obtain, we think it probable that the Constitutional Convention will conclude their labors about the 10th of December and that the Constitution will be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection on or about the 1st of January. At the time the people are called upon to adopt or reject the Constitution, the people will be authorized to elect a Governor and other State officers, including Supreme Court Judges, Members of Congress, and Senators and Assemblymen. The various Judicial Districts will have to elect District Judges at the same time, and [illegible] all the officers will be chosen necessary to set the machinery of State running. The Convention will also recommend to the Territorial Legislature to meet on January 1st and adjourn, to await the action of Congress on the admission of the new State. So soon as our Convention adjourns, a certified copy of the Constitution will be transmitted to the President of the United States, and if the people vote, as they undoubtedly will, to adopt the Constitution, then the President will probably send in to Congress a copy of our Constitution with a message recommending our admission as a State. If Congress complies with our wishes in this matter, so soon as the bill passes both Houses of Congress and receives the signature of the President, a telegraphic despatch will announce the fact to our people, and then the State Government can immediately be organized. If, on the contrary, Congress shall refuse us admission as a State, our Territorial Legislature can convene again, and remain in session the balance of the 40 days.
If the programme we have mentioned is carried out by the Convention, the recommendation to the Territorial Legislature will be made on the score of economy. If we are admitted as a State the Legislature elect, by pursuing the course recommended, will save us the sum of $30,000. And as it is presumed that there is as much patriotism in our Territorial Legislature as can be found in any similar body of men, it is altogether probably that they will follow the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention.
Presuming, then, in advance, that the course we have indicated will be pursued, it behooves our people to consider the qualifications of those who desire State offices. We have the right material to set in motion the machinery of a State Government. It will be well for the people that they commence thinking in advance upon whom they will bestow the honors of the new State, for in a very short time they will be called upon to choose State officers. We want a good Governor and other responsible State officers. We want Judges who are above outside influences, without regard to the question of one-ledge or three-ledge theories. We want a member of Congress who is patriotic and a statesman. We want a Legislature who will elect two of the ablest and most honest men among us to represent us in the United States Senate. Are the people prepared to act in the manner we have indicated? If not, they should be.
[Reprinted in San Francisco Bulletin, December 4, 1863, p. 3.]
